Turkey Day in Champaign, IL

Caleb had early release on Tuesday and Tim took off the whole week of Thanksgiving so we left for Champaign a little bit before noon and got to our hotel by 5pm. We were all hungry and since the Lone Star Steakhouse had kids eating for free on Tuesdays, we took full advantage of that! It was SO good. 

 

Caleb enjoying the fresh bread before our meal came. 

 

Mmmm.. bread!

Dessert! We all shared it later at the hotel

Sonya was testing out the bed and the remote!

It was nice to have some family time to relax at the hotel for a night before all the Turkey Day festivities started. We took the kids swimming after dinner and then had our chocolate cake for a snack. Then we all cuddled into our beds and watched "The Santa Claus" since it was on TV. The next morning, Tim's brother, Rob, came over to join us for some morning swimming since he took the day off. I didn't get any photos of us in the pool partially -- paranoid that my camera will end up in the pool! Well, after we checked out of the hotel, we headed over to Rob and Sam's place and unloaded our very FULL car. Then we went to an indoor playground that is attached to a church near them. The kids enjoyed it! Plus, it was nicer than trying to play outside on wet equipment since it had rained the night before. 

Playing in the little truck

Poor Uncle Rob -- he couldn't get at the candy!

Sad ticket taker

Uncle Rob with Sonya by the Fire Truck

Riding the motorcycle

We got back to eat some lunch. Sonya didn't want to take a nap at all! Finally she settled down and fell asleep on me while we watched TV. Caleb was pretty excited when Uncle Peter showed up after his drive from Indiana and then Aunt Sam came home from work! After a short nap, Sonya woke up. She can't stand to miss out on anything.  It was so funny because she kept getting Peter and Rob mixed up. I don't blame her -- they look a lot a like and then they both had to coordinate their wardrobes or something. They happened to both be wearing orange shirts. 

Sonya and her Uncle Peter

Caleb helped Aunt Sam with some of her Thanksgiving preparations and then came outside to kick the little soccer ball around. The weather was SO nice! For dinner, we had homemade chili while the kids had chicken nuggets. Somehow, a migraine snuck up on me so I was not very helpful in the kitchen. Sorry Sam! After the kids were in bed, the Nikolai boys were sent to the grocery store for a few things. hehe... They only had to do two trips (not because they forgot anything, but we realized we needed other ingredients for pumpkin pie after they returned from trip #1) oops!

Thanksgiving Day --- Grandma and Papa Nikolai arrived with Aunt Kelly a little before kick-off of the Packer game. Most of us were sporting Packer attire. :-)

Packer pile up!

Grinding pecans for sweet potato casserole

Aunt Sam's first time making a turkey!

Watching the game

VIDEO -- Celebrating after a Packer Touchdown

Practicing her Touchdown moves

Sonya and Aunt Teh-yee (Kelly)

Who's the cheesehead?

The Packer fans

Touchdown pose

Going after the veggies

There's pickles!!

Uncle Rob carving the turkey

Lots of food!!
The main course: Veggies, Salad, Green Bean Casserole, Corn Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole,
Cranberries, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Packer Jello, Turkey

Sparkling Grape Juice and some Wine
Desserts: There were two apple and two pumpkin pies along with a cranberry/apple crisp

Cuddling with Uncle Peter

Cheese!

A full family photo (Aunt Sam is in this one!)

We were all pretty full and tired after eating. Caleb was pretty funny when he called Papa out by saying: "You're having THIRDS?" haha!! It was classic! The rest of the evening went well. The next day was Black Friday. I am not a shopper, but needed a few things for a baby shower on Saturday so I went with Sam to Target -- don't worry, we didn't go until like 8 or 9am. There was no way I was getting up early! Then once Grandma and Papa got back to Rob and Sam's from their night at the hotel, we walked over to the mall so the kids could play. Well, Aunt Sam wanted to check out a few stores too. :-)

Sonya is on a bear! Good thing daddy is there.

The climbing monkey boy

Tim and his dad

Grandma loves to snuggle her Sonya

Sonya was enjoying running around

and playing in Clifford

Caleb mooched coins off of Grandma and Papa -- at least it was for a good cause!

Riding the tractor

Steering the boat with his foot!

Sonya and Caleb playing with the roller coaster machine

Rob and Sam :-)

Pretending to nap

Caleb LOVES his aunt Sam

Rob & Sam with their favorite niece and nephew

Grandma & Papa with the kids

Yup... I had to document that I was actually at Thanksgiving too!

Sticking out their tongues... hehe

Well, that's about all. After lunch, we drove 4.5 hours to get home and stuck a pizza in the oven for dinner. The kids were a little worn out (oh... and so were Tim and I), but we all survived Thanksgiving. It was fun!

A Date with Caleb

It had been forever since Caleb and I had gone on a date together. The last one I could remember was going to the library and then Caleb spent most of the time just playing with the trains. So I thought it'd be nice to do something just with him and I.

Since Tim isn't crazy about Mexican food or rather food that resembles Mexican ... lol... Caleb and I went to Taco Bell for dinner. With all the road construction in Saukville, we were pretty much the only ones in the dining area. It was like we had the place to ourselves. It was nice to just sit down and have a good one-on-one talk with him. Plus I know he had been wanting to go back to Taco Bell for a while now.

I still had a coupon for a free ice cream cone at Dairy Queen so we stopped there for dessert. Again, we were the only ones inside. We went into the little room that used to have the merry-go-round in it. Caleb and I told jokes while we ate ice cream. He's big into jokes like: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" His punchline was: "Because he was a chicken." It was so ridiculous, but yet so funny. Then I asked, "Why did the rhinoceros cross the road?" I don't think I had an answer planned so when Caleb responded with, "Because he was a rhinoceros," we both just laughed.

One of my favorite jokes was: "Why did the rooster cross the road?" -- The answer: "To kiss the chicken!" hehe -- I made that one up in case you were wondering. I thought it was pretty good too!

Outside of jokes, it was just a very nice time to sit down with Caleb and talk about life and what he likes and doesn't like, how school is going, and just any other topic that came up. I love my little Caleb boy and just pray that he always feels comfortable to talk to me and never thinks he's too old to have dates with his mommy. :-)

It's Ain't as Easy as it Looks.....

Last night while Caleb was at Awana, Tim and I put together a new bed for Caleb. (Tim's cousin, Chad, had outgrown it so they passed it along to us). Let's just say that putting a bed together is not as easy as it looks. The holes weren't lining up and there was much frustration. On top of that, Sonya was trying to be helpful and kept grabbing tools and trying to turn bolts (and was banging on the hallway walls with a real hammer!) I think it took a lot longer than it should've, but the final product turned out quite nice:

Caleb's new bed

Since Tim and I had kind of argued while assembling the bed, he came home with a peace offering after he picked up Caleb from Awana. Aren't they pretty? 

Pretty flowers -- a good peace offering

Growing like weeds

The kids are growing like weeds. I can hardly keep up with them anymore!

Sonya is talking up a storm and picking up new words every day. She's also going poopy on the potty pretty consistently for the past three weeks and getting a tinkle in there every now and then too. It's like she's training herself! Sonya loves her babies and loves animals (as long as they don't get close enough to touch her). She is always trying to get us to sit and read with her. Sometimes we catch her babbling up a story in her own little language. It's so cute. We have lots of tea parties in the basement. "Tea!" she'll shout as she drags you over to the kitchen area and pours you a cup of imaginary tea. Often times, it has a toy pepper in it. I guess that gives it extra flavor. :-)

Caleb is quite the little artist. He has been drawing lots of houses (with garages of course!) and loves to write words. Most of the time, we don't even help him with spelling because he can sound it out and then figures out the letters on his own. I have to be careful of what I'm typing if he's sitting by the computer because he can read all my messages now. Even if he doesn't know one of the words right away, he figures it out somehow. Maybe I'll have to start writing words in Spanish! haha... I love my little boy. He's curious about the world and curious about God. He has really challenged Tim and I with some spiritual questions lately. I'm so glad that he loves the Lord.

There are so many new things that I've noticed with the kids, but I can't remember them all right now. I try to put them on the calendar so I can transfer them into a word document every month. It's so fun to see how they learn and grow every day. I'm so blessed by my little weeds. :-)

Traditions

Every time we've gone to the St. Louis Zoo, I've had a photo of Caleb and I taken with the gorilla statue. It's amazing to see how he's grown!

Now that Sonya has finally made the trek to the St. Louis Zoo, it's time for her to pose with the gorilla too!